Wedding dress designer Adrienn Braun, whose studio is seen here, moved to Kearny Point from Queens and is part of a diverse mix of small businesses, startups and other creative companies at Building 78. — All photos by Jeffrey Vock for Real Estate NJ
By Joshua Burd
The wide, light-filled hallways inside Building 78 are lined with glass panels that offer a look into the businesses that have moved into Kearny Point — from a wedding dress designer to a 3D printer to venture capital-backed research labs.
All signs point to a project that has succeeded in creating diversity at the 207,000-square-foot flex office space, where the first tenant committed in late 2015. The companies range from new entrepreneurs to existing businesses that were seeking a satellite location, including transplants from New York City and those who moved from elsewhere in New Jersey.
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“It’s a very eclectic tenancy,” said Steve Nislick of Hugo Neu Corp. Hugo Neu is supporting those tenants with common areas on every floor, prewired offices, loading areas and package receiving. Nislick describes the service as something akin to an apartment building, noting that “the little things mean a lot to small tenants.”
The property also features a 2,500-square-foot restaurant and café and a 20,000-square-foot co-working space at the building, along with a roof deck and an indoor event space.
It’s all laying the groundwork for what the developer hopes will be a larger, broader community that will become a center of innovation and creativity.
“We really want to encourage as much diversity as possible,” Wendy Neu said. “A lot of these companies are startups, but as we see more development, it would be nice to mix that up with manufacturing and light industrial.”
